Mavs ship draft pick to Pacers to complete trade

[CmWYNNE3]

The Dallas Mavericks finally closed the book on their unsuccessful trade for troubled forward Shawne Williams by sending the Indiana Pacers their 57th pick in the upcoming NBA draft, Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson confirmed Wednesday.

It leaves the Mavericks with just the 50th overall selection in the June 24 draft. New Jersey owns the Mavericks' first-round pick, stemming from the Jason Kidd trade in February 2008.

The Mavs took a chance on Williams, who played under coach Rick Carlisle as a rookie at Indiana. But Williams had successive run-ins with the law while with the Pacers after leaving Memphis after his freshman year.

Pacers president Larry Bird selected the 6-9 Williams with the 17th overall pick in 2006, but Bird grew tired of Williams' troublemaking as Bird was attempting to clean up the team's thuggish image due to multiple off-court incidents.

Williams played in just 22 games for the Mavs. By January 2009, the club had sent him home to Memphis. At the time, Mavs owner Mark Cuban said the team was trying to help Williams work through some issues.

He did not return to the Mavs and remains out of the league.

Williams proved to be an expensive gamble. In October 2008, the Mavs traded Eddie Jones, a 2009 second-round draft pick, which the Pacers turned into guard A.J. Price, another second-round pick in either 2010 or 2011, plus cash in the amount of Jones' salary, which was about $1.9 million.

Jeff Caplan covers the Mavericks for ESPNDallas.com.